


Message Received

by ThatwasJustaDream



Series: Thank you fics for the "Share your best of 2013" post on LJ's 1_million_words comm [13]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Community: 1_million_words, Dom/sub Undertones, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-30
Updated: 2014-01-30
Packaged: 2018-01-10 13:40:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatwasJustaDream/pseuds/ThatwasJustaDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk's hurt and struggling. McCoy's ready with the cure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Message Received

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FairyNiamh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyNiamh/gifts).



> Written as a thank you for posting to the 2013 'Best Of' forum on LJ's 1_million_words comm.

“We’re ready to execute either plan, captain. The moment you make the call.”

Kirk sat taller on the sickbay bed, glancing over Doctor McCoy’s shoulder toward Spock in the doorway. His first officer was standing PADD in hand, a frown on his lips.

“I’m still not hearing what I need in order to _make_ a decision,” Kirk shifted, then, dropping his arm to accommodate the doctor as McCoy ran the dermal regenerator over his injured shoulder. “Before we go back down to that planet and, in effect, arrest their top leadership we need to know they’re aggressors and not simply taking a defensive.…”

“I would think the way our first away team was attacked – that our captain, who made clear his good intentions-- is in the sick bay with a severe rotator cuff injury…”

“Poor communication. It could boil down to them misunderstanding our message. I’m surprised, Mr. Spock, that you can’t see that?”

“You envision the Axanar as a cautious but well-intentioned people. I see them as a budding militaristic society, one it would be unwise to pacify. I can enumerate why.”

“Please do,” Kirk said wearily. “Again.”

He heard McCoy’s short, amused snort and Spock launching into his litany of evidence for a third time and he slumped. 

Normally command charged him up, but this mission? It was… enervating.

For one thing, it marked his first severe on-duty injury - a wound so deep it might take the doctor and his tools a solid week or more to heal. For another? He felt alone. Very far from home – and the calls that had to be made were increasingly complex.

“Bones. _Hey_ , stop it, you’re…..” he whispered it, trying not to interrupt Spock because God forbid they had to listen to this spiel a fourth time. 

McCoy had set down the regenerator at some point. He’d taken the crook of Jim’s arm in one hand, the webbing between his thumb and index finger in the other and was pressing the pressure points in a way that didn’t hurt… _exactly_ … but made it virtually impossible to move -- at all, and certainly not without pain. 

It was a simple, physical message clearer than words: ‘I have you. Get through this. Later, I will take full control, and you will have no say. You won’t even want it.’

Kirk had a flashback of four nights ago; his wrists and arms tied tight to McCoy’s headboard, his medical officer working him with tongue and lips and fingers until Kirk was shaking, pleading.

“Ohhh…” he dropped his head to McCoy’s shoulder, now.

There was a press of lips to the top of his head, then his doctor picked up the regenerator and went back to work just as Spock finished making his case and looked up.

“We're trying once more to work with them,” Kirk told Spock. “I want you running this. Go in armed and protect yourselves- but give them every chance to talk. If it doesn’t work, you have my okay to do what’s necessary and bring them here.”

Spock was gone, and the room got very quiet.

“You trust him to give it his all? Really engage with them?” McCoy asked.

“I can’t think of anyone I’d trust more to go in with both an opinion and an open mind.”

That drew McCoy’s softer, more open, affectionate sound of scorn.

“I thought…” Kirk looked for the right words. “…maybe the other week was… an anomaly. With us. A one-time thing?”

“Never was big on hit and runs. Even when I was a kid.”

“Good. We don’t have to wait, you know? For my shoulder to mend.”

“Glad to hear you say that,” McCoy accepted the quick kiss offered to him, ending it with a nip and a slow drag of his teeth over Kirk’s lower lip. “Doesn’t have to be rough, you know? I can very gently be the boss of you.”

“Looking forward to it,” Kirk sighed the words against his mouth. “Very much.”


End file.
